Was being in love supposed to feel like having a heart attack while getting punched in the gut? And if so, why hadn’t anyone ever told him that?

  With his mind going a mile a minute, he moved quickly from thoughts of love to realizing he was going to have to make sure Rudnick had the house cleared of bodies and cops, or feds, by the time he got her there.

  If the blood stains could be gone, that would be great too. If not, he’d just keep her away from the office.

  The juxtaposition of his many and varied thoughts made him realize, theirs hadn’t started like the average relationship, and it was no more normal now.

  Would it ever be? Normal?

  Given who he was and who she was, probably not. And that was fine.

  Normal was overrated anyway.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  “I feel well enough to get up,” Angela insisted.

  Not that she didn’t enjoy being in bed all day with Adam doting over her, but a woman couldn’t stay in bed forever.

  “Whatever you need, I’d be happy to bring you,” he said.

  “Adam, I want to walk around. Go downstairs. Check email on my computer. Make a cup of tea on my own.”

  “Angela. No.”

  She pushed herself up in the bed and felt the twinge in her ribs. She had a feeling that was going to take a while to heal. Longer than her bruises, which had already faded from dark purple to a ghastly shade of putrid yellow.

  Since she was allowed to walk to the bathroom located off her bedroom, even though Adam did try and help her at first, she’d already gotten a good look at the damage in the mirror.

  With all the days feeling the same, her one barometer of progress was the changes in her bruises.

  “Why not?” she asked. “Give me one good reason why I can’t go downstairs.”

  He pressed his lips together, his nostrils flaring as he drew in a deep breath. Finally, he said, “Because they are installing the new carpet in your office today.”

  “New carpet—” She frowned, then the reason hit her. Blood. “Oh.”

  “Yeah.” He nodded. “Even a professional couldn’t get it clean.”

  She drew in a breath. “Okay. Thank you for handling everything. I know it can’t be easy with Fern still laid up. And the baby. And now, new carpets.”

  He smiled. “I’m pretty good at juggling things. This is nothing.”

  “Spoken like a true man. Belittling what it takes to run a household,” she teased.

  “Spoken like a true feminist—even though you have Fern to do it all for you while you go to work. So, domestically speaking, I think you and I are pretty much equal in this situation.”

  She had to admit he had her there. But that was all going to change.

  If nothing else, this whole nightmare had taught her life was precious and she needed to start treating it as such. She’d delegate more at work. Spend more time at home. Work less hours. No more nights and weekends at the office.

  “So, since you’re feeling so much better…” He kicked off his shoes and sat on the bed next to her, putting his feet up.

  She would have been encouraged by him crawling into bed with her, if it weren’t for his tone. “Uh, oh.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “You sound serious.”

  “It is serious.”

  “All right. Go on.” She braced herself for something unpleasant.

  “I’ve been shielding you as much as possible from the feds but they’ve been either here in person or on the phone every day since you were attacked. I’m answering what questions I can. Putting them off when I can’t. But their questioning is becoming… interesting.

  “Interesting?” she repeated.

  “Yeah. I’m starting to get a clearer picture of what information they have, just by what they keep asking me. I contacted Rudnick from the security agency I hired and he and his partner Alexander have some contacts pretty high up. Both in the military and in the government. They did some digging and between all of that, we’ve put together a pretty intriguing theory about your kidnapping.”

  “Would you like to share?” she asked.

  “Sure. From what we can tell, whatever this super-secret project your company is working on—that you still won’t tell me about but that got you kidnapped and almost killed over—is something a lot of people want.” Adam lobbed that shot about her keeping secrets, not for the first time.

  It was still a sore spot between them that she hadn’t told him about the project. She kept her mouth shut, hoping he’d continue.

  “We think it was the Russians who had you kidnapped in Shanghai.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “The two clean up guys who Fern shot were speaking Russian when they walked past her in the kitchen. She hid that she was conscious but she heard them talking about the Kremlin and some files.”

  “Fern understands Russian?” And also owned a gun, apparently. What else didn’t Angela know about her housekeeper?

  Adam let out a short laugh. “Yeah. That’s a whole other discussion.”

  “If they had people working here in the States, why would the Russians kidnap me in China?” she asked.

  “To throw suspicion on the Chinese government and take it off Moscow. Because it’s easier to grab someone there than here. Any number of reasons.”

  “Then who hired you to rescue me from the hotel? It obviously wasn’t Lou if he was working with the people who put me there.”

  “No. It wasn’t Lou who hired Charley to hire me. From the phone conversation I heard, Lou was definitely working with the Russians. I think, and Rudnick and Alexander agree, our government arranged for your rescue.”

  “Now I’m really confused.”

  “Think about it. They couldn’t send US military personnel to stage an official rescue on Chinese soil. If the op went south, it could start an international incident. They wouldn’t have involved the Chinese authorities because at the time they probably didn’t know if China was involved in taking you or not. That leaves a private contractor as the best option. Namely, me. And if I got caught, they could just deny any involvement. Say I went in rogue.”

  “Jesus.” She shook her head.

  “What I don’t understand is what getting rid of you would do for Lou or his partners.”

  She could answer that question. “There’s a bylaw in the corporate charter. If anything happens to me, all of the CEO power will temporarily pass to my second in command until a suitable replacement is instated.”

  Adam remained silent, waiting for her to continue.

  Finally, she said, “As CEO Lou would have had complete access to the project.”

  “The super-secret project.” His lips twisted with a wry smile.

  “Adam—”

  “I know. Classified.” He scowled.

  “Do you want to work for me?” she asked.

  His gaze shot to her. “Excuse me?”

  “I want to hire you. Well, not me personally. I want the company to hire you as a consultant to evaluate the physical security on site. And the cyber security. Everything.”

  He lifted one brow. “That’s not exactly my wheelhouse.”

  “Then you will be the one to hire a qualified person to do it. Your friends maybe. Samuel’s bosses.”

  Adam pursed his lips. “And why would you want to hire me?”

  “Why would you not want the job? I can pay you appropriately—”

  He blew out a cuss. “It’s not about the damn money, Angela.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “I don’t want to be your employee. I don’t want you to be my boss. That’s a fucking minefield. Legally and for the relationship dynamic between you and me. Unless—is that what you want? Is this to put a barrier between us? Keep me safely in the role of subordinate instead of an equal. A partner.” His stare was cold and hard.

  “No. Adam. No.” She shook her head.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, looking hurt.

  “I’m very sure.”

  “Then why try to hire me?”

  “Because if you’re on my payroll, I can add you to the project team. I can tell you.”

  His eyes widened. “Oh.” He drew in a breath through his mouth and blew it out. “All right. In that case, yeah.”

  “Your employment contract is going to include an NDA. You’ll be okay with signing that?” she asked.

  “Oh, we’re getting official with the paperwork too? Yeah, sure. I’d love to sign your non-disclosure agreement,” he said with a good dose of sarcasm.

  “Adam. I’m serious.”

  “I’m sorry. I know. But if you only knew all the classified shit I have in my head. What level of clearance I had…” He shook his head as the sentence trailed off.

  “Maybe that’s the problem. I don’t know. You don’t talk about your past or what you did. I have some guesses just from seeing what you’re capable of, but nothing directly from you.”

  “I guess we both tend to keep our secrets to ourselves.” He nodded. “Okay. I’ll tell you my story. Then you tell me yours?”

  Her heart fluttered as she wondered if she was better off remaining in the dark. A man like Adam, with his skills, could have been anything. A soldier. A hitman. A spy.

  Bracing herself for whatever he might say, she said, “Okay.”

  He drew in a deep breath that expanded his chest. “I was in the Navy for eighteen years. A SEAL for most of them.”

  Her eyes widened at the information. A Navy SEAL? Why would he hide that? She didn’t want to interrupt him to ask, so she waited.

  He swallowed and then continued. “The team was on an op. I was on overwatch. We set up our sniper hide on a rooftop about half a mile from the action. There was some kind of delay. We were there for hours longer than we should have been. Like twelve hours longer. My spotter had to take a piss. We were both out of water by then. It was hot as fuck. I told him to go grab us provisions.

  “So I was there alone, and bored, so I used the scope and started surveying the area. Farther out, about a mile away, I saw something that didn’t look right. The more I watched the less kosher it all looked, until I was certain I was witnessing something command needed to know about.”

  “What did you see?” she asked.

  “Through a window, I saw a man, not in uniform, but wearing what looked like western clothing, with a case open on a table. It was one of those hard cases. Metal on the outside but padded on the inside. Which made sense since there looked like rows of small glass vials inside. In the room there were two other men. Both wearing traditional regional attire. They took the case.”

  “What was in the vials?” she whispered, the terror real as all her nightmares and fears played out in his story.

  “I don’t know. But whatever it was cost me my career.”

  “What? How?”

  “I reported it up the chain of command. Every detail I could remember. The next thing I know I’m in handcuffs and being charged.”

  “With what?”

  “They said I shot and killed the first man. The one who brought the case.”

  “But you didn’t.”

  “No. I didn’t. But somehow two bullets that matched my weapon were found in his dead body. Reportedly shot from a distance. My spotter wasn’t there the whole time to be a witness that I hadn’t fired a shot. It was my word against the evidence.”

  “You were set up,” she whispered in horror.

  “Yeah. The question is why? What did I see that I wasn’t supposed to that someone went to such great lengths to cover up?”

  “Did you go to jail?”

  “No. That’s the ironic part of the whole thing. They arranged it so that even after they set me up, I ended up having to feel grateful to accept what small scraps they threw me.

  “My choice was be court martialed and probably spend the next twenty years locked in a cell. Or plead guilty, say it was an accident, take a dishonorable discharge and leave quietly. So that’s what I did. I was stripped of my trident and rank. Lost any future pension and benefits. But I was a free man.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  He lifted a shoulder. “No big deal.”

  It was a very big deal. She was angry on his behalf. How he hadn’t lost his mind over the injustice of it all was beyond comprehension.

  “You have no idea what you saw happening?”

  “I’ve had a lot of time to think about it and I can guess but I doubt I’ll ever know for certain.”

  “What do you think it was?”

  “This was back when we were still allowed to have a small number of troops in the region. But only in a support and advise capacity. I think the guy who got shot was one of ours, slipping something to someone we weren’t supposed to be supporting. Maybe it was chemical weapons, poison, some contagion. Maybe weaponized anthrax. Who knows? It could very well have been us supplying the means to assassinate the president of Syria for all I know. If I’d just kept my mouth shut…”

  She wanted to tell him he’d done what he thought was right and he should never feel bad about that, but the sentiment seemed trite after all it had cost him.

  More than that, she was feeling ill as he described a scenario eerily similar to what she feared was the future of the project that had almost cost her life and Fern’s. The project that Lou had paid for with his when he tried to steal and sell it.

  “The project,” she began.

  Those words brought Adam’s gaze whipping up from where he’d been staring at the pattern on her bedding. He watched her as the air vibrated between them with almost tangible energy.

  “What do you know about human genome sequencing and genetically engineered pathogens?”

  His brows rose. “A bit,” he said, drawing out the words.

  “The idea is to create a DNA-based carrier system. A vehicle able to deliver preventatives or cures based on specific DNA. So, for example, when there’s a preventative or cure available for breast cancer, we could send it out en masse to the public via the water system and have it target only those individuals with the BRCA gene mutation. Kind of like putting fluoride in the drinking water to help prevent cavities except we have the ability to target down to the individual level. A single person, if we want.”

  “You have the ability. This isn’t theory? You were successful?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “It can deliver pathogens as well as cures,” he guessed.

  “Yes.”

  “And target down to the individual level.” Adam bit out an obscenity. “It’s the perfect assassin.”

  She swallowed away the sick feeling. “Worse than that. It can also infect one segment of a population, everyone who shares a certain genetic marker, all while the rest of people remain completely unaffected.”

  He let out a long low whistle. “Genetically engineered genocide.”

  “Yes.”

  “And with everyone and their mother taking those novelty DNA tests, there’s a whole hackable database full of genetic information available,” he pointed out.

  The more Adam talked, the sicker she felt.

  “That’s why I did my best to keep it secret. The only people who know we were successful are the lead scientist, her assistant, and me. And now, you. We didn’t even file a patent. That would have exposed the details of what we were doing. I was trying to create the perfect cure. I never meant to create the perfect weapon.”

  “So how did Lou know?” he asked.

  “It wasn’t a secret that we were working on gene-specific drugs. The NIH knew. Everyone knew. But the technology for the delivery system was supposed to be years away from development. When we made the breakthrough, I kept our success completely confidential. Especially when the Pentagon showed such aggressive interest.”

  “Just the possibility of the technology being developed in the future might be enough for those interested in using it as a weapon,” Adam guessed. “And they could have approached Lou. Offered him money in exchange for the details.”

  She nodded. “And he would have gotten them if I’d stayed missing for longer. I’m actually surprised the board of directors waited that long to transfer power. I was missing for weeks.”

  And during that time, Lou did everything in his power to make her look guilty of corporate espionage, if not treason. Made himself look like the safe, sane, much-needed option for leadership.

  “You must have a very loyal board. They believed in you.”

  She thought about the members, as individuals and as a whole. She’d never considered any of them as overly loyal, or even friendly for that matter.

  Maybe she’d misjudged them all. Stereotyped them just as she assumed they’d stereotype her.

  Lesson learned.

  “So, what now?” she asked.

  He cocked up one brow. “You’re asking me?”

  “Yes. Aren’t you my new security consultant?”

  “I guess I have to be, now that I’m in the inner circle. Will there be a blood oath ceremony along with the NDA?” he joked before sobering and letting out a burst of air. “You need to keep this technology secret. From everyone. And I mean everyone. Our own government included.”

  She nodded. “I agree.”

  Sadly, she didn’t trust that kind of power in anyone’s hands. In fact, she was sorry they’d ever taken on the project to begin with.

  “Can you do that?” he asked.

  “I’m sure going to try. With your help, I hope.” Her gaze met his.

  He reached out and covered her hand. “You got it.”

  Adam leaned in and pressed a kiss to just the corner of her lips. He’d been gentle since her injuries. Too gentle.

  She kissed him back with more enthusiasm and finally, he plunged his tongue between her lips and kissed her properly.

  When he came up for air, she couldn’t help asking one last question before she crawled on top of him and proved to him she was feeling much, much better.

  “So who is Fern that she speaks Russian, kept a gun in my kitchen and can take down two men while bleeding out?”

  He smiled. “She is pretty amazing. She hasn’t admitted it yet, but I’m thinking CIA.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Wow.”